Audio, photos raise new questions about suspect's death in North Chicago

'Put me down, please, I was down,' suspect is heard yelling on tape played at City Council meeting

April 10, 2012|By Robert McCoppin and Susan Berger, Chicago Tribune

Darrin Hanna died late last year, a week after an encounter with North Chicago police, in which officers tackled, punched and Tasered him while trying to subdue him after reports that he was beating a pregnant woman, according to a state police inquiry.

An audio recording, apparently captured during a violent encounter between North Chicago police and a man who later died, renewed controversy over the case Monday when the tape was played during a City Council meeting.

The quality of the tape is poor but the subject of the arrest, Darrin Hanna, is seemingly heard yelling, "Put me down, please, I was down," after an officer is heard telling him in a calm, even voice: "You are OK. You're safe. Relax. Calm down."

Hanna, 45, died a week after the early November encounter, in which officers tackled, punched and Tasered Hanna while trying to subdue him after reports that he was beating a pregnant woman, according to a state police inquiry. His death prompted a spate of other brutality claims against the city, a lawsuit by Hanna's family and the departure of the police chief, though county authorities determined there were no grounds to press criminal charges against the six officers involved.

As they have since his death, though, relatives of Hanna and other critics of the Police Department crowded into the council chambers Monday night and continued their call for disciplinary action against the involved officers, who have been on desk duty since the incident. Just before the meeting Monday, Hanna's mother, Gloria Carr, began wailing and crumpled to the floor, where she was assisted by paramedics. She complained that she had been harassed and that her home was egged, and Mayor Leon Rockingham said he would increase patrols around her home.

The audio recording was not released along with the state police report, but Muriel Collison, an attorney for Hanna's relatives, said it was released to them through a Freedom of Information request. Rockingham confirmed the tape's authenticity, though it's unclear whether it was edited or exactly when during the arrest it was recorded, apparently by an officer's radio. It was played at the City Council meeting by a cousin of Hanna, Ralph Peterson, who asserted the city had tried to cover up the contents of the tape.

City officials did not address the content of the tape Monday evening. But Rockingham pleaded for patience, saying the city needs more time to complete its internal investigation. And he said the city has not ruled out dismissal as a possible consequence.

"I told you I would do everything and review every policy," the mayor said. "It comes from our chief regarding discipline or dismissal, and we are in the process of completing our investigation."

Carr, Hanna's mother, was apparently overcome after seeing newly revealed photos, apparently taken of an unconscious Hanna before he was taken to the hospital following the encounter with police. They show him on the ground, his head bleeding, bruised and swollen. The photographs were shown at an earlier City Council meeting and passed around again Monday by Peterson, who asserted they cast doubt over authority's determination of what happened to Hanna.

According to the state police, the North Chicago officers said Hanna charged them with fists clenched yelling, "Shoot me!" They said one officer tackled him head-first to the wooden floor, and when he continued to resist, one officer punched him twice in the face, and other officers hit him repeatedly with batons on the back of his legs and tried to shock him twice with a Taser, before subduing and handcuffing him.

Hanna died from multiple causes, according to the Lake County coroner's autopsy, which blamed chronic cocaine use and sickle cell disease along with police restraint and trauma.

Kevin O'Connor, another attorney for the Hanna family, argued that the tapes show police had subdued Hanna within 12 seconds, that he was compliant, not combative, and coherent but terrified. Yet by the time an ambulance took him away, he was beaten almost unconscious, and was mumbling incoherently, according to the state report.

In contrast to officers' description of Hanna as an out-of-control aggressor, O'Connor said, the tape suggests the officers were in control while Hanna was begging for his life.

"This is the smoking gun that was never talked about by the state's attorney or state police," O'Connor said. "It's the complete opposite of what they reported. And nobody analyzed it because nobody wanted to analyze it."

The autopsy describes six wounds on his face, yet police describe only the fall to the floor and two punches.

The autopsy also describes 11 Taser marks on Hanna's back, yet the officers mention only two or three attempts to Taser him without apparent effect.

Peterson also and announced plans for a protest march to the North Chicago Police Station and City Hall on April 21.